In some industries, manufacturers produce similar but varying products where product variance depends upon customer choice of various options. The automobile industry, for many models of cars, is an example, as customers may choose from a number of options for certain models and then obtain an automobile matching their desires from the factory. Some manufacturers of personal computers also allow customers to select various options and then custom build a computer to meet the customer's desires. Similarly, other industries also allow customers their choice of options.
In many manufacturing facilities that produce similar products containing customer-defined options, methods used for processing orders are often fixed. A particular customer order may be coupled to a physical product very early in the manufacturing process. Once the order is coupled to the physical product, a one-to-one relationship between the order and that physical product remains intact throughout the assembly process. When the physical product is delayed, then so is the order associated with it. Thus, orders may not be decoupled from partially completed physical products and recoupled with a different partially completed product during the manufacturing process. The inability of existing computerized manufacturing scheduling systems to decouple an order from a physical product being manufactured defeats the ability to expedite an order once that order has been coupled to a specific product.
Manufacturers may also employ computerized scheduling systems at multiple evaluation points in a manufacturing facility. At these evaluation points, there may be multiple physical products from which to choose to pass on to the next manufacturing step. Existing systems normally base this decision upon a predetermined business objective. Because business objectives may change from day-to-day or hour-to-hour, existing systems do not allow adequate flexibility to adjust to changing business objectives.